Singles – Page 14 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Peter Green – In The Skies

I like to post on the weekends because I get to expand my musical palette so to speak. I love finding new/old music that I missed in real time. Peter Green’s solo work is new to me. I will continue to go through his albums. I listened to this album this week, but not like I usually do because of time or the lack of. I listened and took the two that stood out. The instrumental Slabo Day and the title cut of the album In The Skies. His guitar tone is beautiful and clear on these songs.

This is not the Peter Green of Oh Well or The Green Manalishi here. No unhinged guitar howls or walls of feedback. In the Skies is mellow, reflective, and fluid. Peter released 6 solo albums from 1970 to 1983. In The Skies was released in 1979. After what he went through, it’s a miracle we have anything from him. When I listen to it, I get the feeling he wasn’t trying to make a hit; he just wanted to play and record again after 9 years.

Green had all but disappeared from the public eye after the early ’70s, battling mental health issues and withdrawing from rock and roll entirely. So when In the Skies was released in 79, his first studio album in nearly a decade, it was a re-introduction of him, if anything.

I liked the title cut because there’s an almost spiritual quality there, something you’d expect from someone who went through what he did. I did listen to his next album Little Dreamer. It’s a bit more focused to me and not as free flowing as this one, but I like this one as well. He was getting back into the game with this one and was loose.

The album peaked at #32 in the UK and #12 in New Zealand in 1979.

In The Skies

Oh, there’s a way to keep the dark from the lightAnd there’s a way to take the cold out of the nightAnd when I see its glowThe sun and moon are shadowedBy the everlasting day

When I reach up my handTo the loving son of manThe bread of life will keep my soul alive

There’s a place where rivers flow in the streetWhere fruit and healing leaves are seen on a treeWhere emerald walls shine clearAnd golden streets run far and nearBehind the gates where his angels names appear

When I reach up my handTo the loving son of manThe bread of life will keep my soul alive

And he will wipe away the tears from our eyesAs we watch this old world fade when it diesAnd a new one shall comeAnd it will be heavenAnd it’s waiting for us there in the skies

In the skiesIn the skiesIn the skiesIn the skies

…

Hollies – He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother)

What a soulful song this is coming out of the Hollies. After Graham Nash left the group, they started to change into more of a 70s rock band.

The Hollies may be best known for their chiming guitars, close harmonies, and pop feel on songs like Bus Stop or Carrie Anne, but in 1969, they took a hard turn straight into emotional overdrive with this song. This wasn’t your typical British Invasion earworm. This was a slow-burning ballad with a title that sounded like scripture. The star of this song is Alan Clarke’s lead vocal. A gut-wrenching vocal that makes Clarke sound like he lived the song.

It was released in 1969 and was written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. A young Elton John played piano on the song. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #7 in New Zealand. It was used in a commercial in 1988 and in that year went to number 1 in the UK charts. I always thought the song had a spiritual sound to it.

Speaking of the songwriters, Bobby Scott was a jazz pianist, and Bob Russell was writing these lyrics while battling terminal cancer. The phrase “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” came from a story involving a Scottish orphanage and a child being carried on another’s back. Back in 1918, a boy named Howard Loomis was abandoned by his mother at Father Flanagan’s Home for Boys, which had opened just a year earlier. Howard had polio and wore heavy leg braces. Walking was difficult for him, especially when he had to go up or down steps. Soon, several of the Home’s older boys carried Howard up and down the stairs. One day, Father Flanagan asked Reuben Granger, one of those older boys, if carrying Howard was hard. Reuben replied, “He ain’t heavy, Father… he’s my brother.”

Tony Hicks: “In the 1960s when we were short of songs I used to root around publishers in Denmark Street. One afternoon, I’d been there ages and wanted to get going but this bloke said: ‘Well there’s one more song. It’s probably not for you.’ He played me the demo by the writers [Bobby Scott and Bob Russell]. It sounded like a 45rpm record played at 33rpm, the singer was slurring, like he was drunk. But it had something about it. There were frowns when I took it to the band but we speeded it up and added an orchestra. The only things left recognizable were the lyrics. There’d been this old film called Boys Town about a children’s home in America, and the statue outside showed a child being carried aloft and the motto He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. Bob Russell had been dying of cancer while writing. We never got, or asked for, royalties. Elton John – who was still called Reg – played piano on it and got paid 12 pounds. It was a worldwide hit twice.”

He Ain’t Heavy(He’s My Brother)

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where
But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get there

For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another

It’s a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we’re on the way to there
Why not share

And the load
Doesn’t weigh me down at all
He ain’t heavy he’s my brother

He’s my brother
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, he ain’t heavy

Beatle Album Tracks that could have been singles

I think people forget how many singles The Beatles could have had in their career. They treated singles and albums differently back then. The Beatles wanted more bang for their buck, so they would release many singles independently from their albums. When you buy an album, it isn’t full of previously released singles like they did in the late 70s and 80s, as in Rumours, Thriller, and Born In The USA.

There were no singles off Sgt Pepper or The White Album…none zilch. They could have added Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields to Sgt Pepper and they could have added Hey Jude and the electric version of Revolution to the White Album, but didn’t.

They had 18…now 19 (Now and Then in 2023) number 1’s in the UK and 20 on Billboard. I’ll list the songs below that were album cuts. No, not all of these would have gone to number 1, but some would have. The songs I think that would have had a chance at #1 on either the US or UK chart are in bold. What other band would not have released these songs as singles, regardless?

This list is album cuts…it could have been a greatest hits package. Also, if you want to hear the songs, I have a Spotify list at the bottom. I didn’t want to post over 30 YouTube videos.

Here Comes The Sun – This is the most streamed song by The Beatles…yet it’s an album cut.
In My Life – One of the most remembered Beatles songs.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Got To Get You Back Into My Life (it was 1976 before this was released, and it hit the top ten… 10 years after it was recorded)
Here, There and Everywhere
Michelle
Getting Better
Birthday
Taxman
A Day In The Life
Back in the USSR
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Hey Bulldog
The Fool on the Hill
Drive My Car
Magical Mystery Tour
Dear Prudence
With A Little Help From My Friends
It Won’t Be Long
The Night Before
I’ve Just Seen a Face
And Your Bird Can Sing
Two Of Us
You Never Give Me Your Money
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (it was 1976 before this was released)
Good Day Sunshine
You Won’t See Me
You’re Going To Lose That Girl
All I’ve Got To Do
No Reply
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

…

Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz

In the early seventies, I noticed a single that my sister had. It was on Bell Records, a band called The Sweet, and the song was Little Willy. The more I heard their hits, the more I couldn’t believe it was the same band. This song is explosive, yes, but it’s also tight, controlled chaos.

It kicks off like a scene from a glam rock horror movie. “Are you ready, Steve?” Andy Scott answers, “Uh-huh,” and one by one, they check in like a gang about to knock over a ballroom. Then BOOM, you’re punched with that guitar riff, drums, and the Sweet launch into one of the most over-the-top rock singles ever recorded.

This song was inspired by a real onstage attack. The Sweet were playing at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland, when the crowd went into an almost riot and started hurling bottles at the band. Most acts might’ve run for cover or written a moody ballad. The Sweet? They wrote a glam rock anthem with more drama than a Saturday night punch-up at a neighborhood pub.

This band seemed to sound like a different band on many of their singles. They were rock, glam rock, pop, some disco, and bubblegum rock. This song has been covered by several different artists. I first heard the song by Krokus in the 1980s. The song peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1973. Their other well-known songs were Little Willy, Fox on the Run, and Love is Like Oxygen.

This was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote many glam songs. They also wrote Sweet’s Blockbuster, Suzi Quatro’s Devil Gate Drive, and Tony Basil’s Mickey.

The Ballroom Blitz

Are you ready, Steve? Uh-ha!

Andy? Yeah!

Mick? Okay.

All right, fellows, let’s go!Oh, it’s been getting so hard

Livin’ with the things you do to me, ah-ha

My dreams are getting so strange

I’d like to tell you everything I see, mmOh, I see a man at the back as a matter of fact

His eyes are red as the sun

And a girl in the corner, let no one ignore her

‘Cause she thinks she’s the passionate one

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Oh, I’m reaching out for something
Touching nothing’s all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear, there’s nothing left of you, ah-ha

Now the man at the back is ready to crack
As he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is everyone’s mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye

Oh yeah, it was electric
So frantically hectic
And the band started leaving
‘Cause they all stopped breathing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
‘Cause they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
Yeah, it’s a ballroom blitz

Yardbirds – For Your Love

This is the song that introduced the Yardbirds to me. I got into them heavily as a teenager. I just found one of my old Jr High notebooks with band names on the front, and The Yardbirds are on there. I always thought this was a different-sounding pop hit. Yes, you have the harpsichord, but the song also has a couple of time signatures.

The song was written by Graham Gouldman, a teenage songwriter whose knack for hooks would later find full bloom in 10cc. For Your Love was handed to them by manager Giorgio Gomelsky, who saw the group’s potential beyond the blues clubs. The song offered a chance on the pop charts. Clocking in at under 2:30, it was compact, catchy, and just different enough to resonate with people. This was one of the few hit pop songs at the time to feature a harpsichord.

And for Eric Clapton, it was the final straw. Clapton wanted blues, and Gomelsky wanted hits. He couldn’t get behind its commercial lean. Within weeks of its release, he was gone, off to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, where the amps were loud and the blues roots ran deeper.

The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #3 in the Uk in 1965. This song was more pop than blues. This inspired Eric Clapton to leave the Yardbirds because he feared they were becoming too commercial.

The Yardbirds had three of Rock’s greatest guitar players pass through them. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. They had such a raw edge to them with Jeff Beck, so that is the version I like best.

Jim McCarty on the songs by Graham Gouldman: “Well, they were always very original. Very interesting songs, very moody, because they were usually in a minor key, the ones we did, anyway. ‘For Your Love’ was an interesting song, it had an interesting chord sequence, very moody, very powerful. And the fact that it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, we liked that, that was interesting. Quite different, really, from all the bluesy stuff that we’d been playing up till then. But somehow we liked it. It was original and different.”

Jim McCarty: “To try and get a hit song in those days was quite a difficult thing to do for us. We could come up with ideas, but our first hit song was very important for us. And with ‘For Your Love’ we heard it and had the demo of it and it sounded like a hit song to all of us. Yeah, there wasn’t a problem doing that. It was the sort of thing that you relied on to get into that other echelon, to have a hit song. All our contemporaries were having hit songs: The Beatles and the Stones and the Moody Blues and Animals, they were all having #1 hits and we were really trying to keep up.”

For Your Love

For your love
For your love
I’d give you everything and more and that’s for sure
(For your love)
I’d bring you diamond rings and things right to your door
(For your love)
To thrill you with delight,
I’d give you diamonds bright
Double takes I will excite,
Make you dream of me at night
For your love
For your love
For your love
For your love,
For your love
I would give the stars above
For your love,
For your love
I would give you all I could
(For your love)
(For your love)
I’d give the moon if it were mine to give
(For your love)
I’d give the stars and the sun for I live
(For your love)

Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’

I heard this song on an oldies channel in the mid-1980s, and it sounded so fresh and powerful. I remember wanting to know more about them, but books on the Spencer Davis Group were in short supply at that time. Before I started blogging, I knew very little about this band.

Let’s talk about the not-so-secret weapon here: Steve Winwood. The kid was 17, but he sings like a man three divorces deep with a gospel choir in his chest. He is simply electric when he plays or sings. No buildup, no easing into it, it’s all gas, no brakes, and all the more thrilling because of it. A teenage Steve Winwood, somehow sounding like a man who had lived five blues lifetimes by age seventeen.

The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #7 on the Billboard 100, #5 in New Zealand, and #2 in the UK in 1966. Steve Winwood’s voice and his B-3 organ drives this song. The Spencer Davis Group formed in 1963, with Spencer Davis on guitar, Pete York on drums, and Muff Winwood on bass, while his brother Steve Winwood, remarkably, was just 14 years old.

By 1966, the Spencer Davis Group had a few hits under their belt in the UK (Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me), but they needed something fast to keep the momentum going. Their producer, Jimmy Miller (who later remade the Stones) asked for an original song that would go over well in the US. So Steve Winwood sat down at the Hammond, punched out that legendary riff, and the band built the rest around it in about 30 minutes. Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Muff Winwood are listed as the writers.

In 1980, The Blues Brothers returned this song to the Billboard Top 20 when their cover reached #18.

Gimme Some Lovin’

Well, my temperature is rising, got my feet on the floor
Crazy people rocking ’cause they want to some more
Let me in baby, I don’t know what you got
But you better take it easy ’cause this place is hot

And I’m so glad you made it, so glad you made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day and I had no work to do
Wait a minute baby, let it happen to you

And I’m so glad we made it, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday, yeh

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day nothing went too good
Now I’m gonna relax, buddy everybody should

And I’m so glad we made it, hey hey, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’ woo ooo
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’

Gimme, gimme, gimme some of your lovin’, baby
You know I need it so bad woo ooo
Gimme some of your lovin’, baby

Tom Petty – American Girl

She couldn’t help thinkin’ that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else

This song builds tension throughout using Mike Campbell’s guitar and Tom’s urgent voice. As you all know, I love dynamics in songs. That is why I like Bruce Springsteen and others. They know how to build it in songs.

This song and The Waiting are the two songs that really won me over to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. The ringing 12-string that introduces it with the Roger McGuinn-like vocals…it’s hard not to like. The story that Roger McGuinn tells is that the first time he heard the song, he thought it was an old Byrds song he had recorded and forgotten about. Roger liked it so much that he covered it.

Tom Petty wrote this song in 1976 while living in an apartment near the University of Florida in Gainesville. Despite now being a classic song, it wasn’t a hit here on release. The song got a boost in the early nineties. In Silence of the Lambs, it’s played in the scene where the character Catherine Martin is singing along in her car before being kidnapped.

The song peaked at #40 in the UK and #68 in the Cash Box Top 100. Even though Petty and his band were from the US, this caught on in England long before it got any attention in America. As a result, Petty started his first big tour in the UK, where this was a bigger hit.

One urban legend is that the song is about a University of Florida student who committed suicide by jumping off the Beaty Towers dormitory. Tom Petty denied that on separate occasions.

Mike Campbell: “We cut that track on the 4th of July. I don’t know if that had anything to do with Tom writing it about an American girl.”

Tom Petty: “‘American Girl’ doesn’t really sound like The Byrds; it evokes The Byrds. People are usually influenced by more than one thing, so your music becomes a mixture. There’s nothing really new, but always new ways to combine things. We tried to play as good as whoever we admired but never could.”

Tom Petty: “I wrote that in a little apartment I had in Encino. It was right next to the freeway and the cars sometimes sounded like waves from the ocean, which is why there’s the line about the waves crashing on the beach. The words just came tumbling out very quickly – and it was the start of writing about people who are longing for something else in life, something better than they have.”

Here is Roger live in 1977…Roger McGuinn doing Tom Petty doing Roger McGuinn…cool!

American Girl

Well she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn’t help thinkin’ that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
Yeah, and if she had to die
Tryin’ she had one little promise
She was gonna keep

Oh yeah, all right
Take it easy baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl

It was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
She could the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashin’ in the beach
And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God it’s so painful
Something that’s so close
And still so far out of reach

Oh yeah, all right
Take it easy baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl

Angels – Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again

Many of you who have read this blog for a while know I have a soft spot for bands that never got their full due, especially the ones who could torch a stage and turn a riff into a mountain. Australia’s The Angels (or Angel City, depending on which record bin you’re digging through) are exactly that kind of band.

If you were hanging around an Aussie pub in the late ’70s, there’s a good chance you heard a blistering set from The Angels. Imagine a little the of Bon Scott-era AC/DC, the attitude of punk, and the tension of a film noir, and now picture that exploding from the back of a sweaty pub in Adelaide. That’s The Angels. As the old saying goes, they took no prisoners.

The Angels began as the Moonshine Jug and String Band in 1970, a folk/jug band formed by brothers Rick and John Brewster. But by 1974, they swapped their washboards for electric guitars and rebranded as The Keystone Angels. The real turning point came when they were spotted by AC/DC’s Angus Young and Bon Scott, who were impressed enough to recommend them to their label, Albert Productions.

Like many Australian acts, The Angels took a swing at the U.S. market, but there was already a band called Angel over here, all makeup and white spandex. So, The Angels became Angel City in the US and released several albums under that name, including Dark Room (1980) and Night Attack (1981).

They had the songs. They had the live chops. But they never quite cracked America the way INXS, AC/DC, or Men at Work would. This was their first single back in 1976, and it peaked at #58 in Australia. It was on their debut self-titled album. Band members John Brewster, Rick Brewster, and Doc Neeson wrote this song.

They did have one song that peaked at #35 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts called Underground. Underground was released in 1985. They also covered The Animals We’ve Gotta Get Outta This Place in 1986, which peaked at #7 in Australia and #13 in New Zealand.

When the band plays it live, fans start to answer the chorus with an expletive-laced chant, and it became part of the show. “No way get f*****, f*** off.” It’s become, unofficial part of the song. They are still together, releasing albums.

Here is another song by the Angels…Take A Long Ride

Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again

You may recognise yourselves here

Went down to Santa Fe, where Renoir paints the wallsDescribed you clearly, but the sky began to fall

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?

Tram cars and taxis, like a waxworks on the moveCarry young girls past me, but none of them are you

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?

Without you near me, I’ve got no place to goWait at the bar, maybe you might show

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?

I’ve got to stop these tears, that’s falling from my eyeGo walk out in the rain, so no one sees me cry

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again? Yeah

Can’t stop the memory that goes climbing through my brainI get no answer, so the question still remains

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?

Am I ever gonna see your face again? (No way, get fucked, fuck off)Am I ever gonna see your face again? (No way, get fucked, fuck off)Am I ever gonna see your face again? (No way, get fucked, fuck off)Am I ever gonna see your face again?

Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?Am I ever gonna see your face again?

Hey, I wanna see your face, your sweet smiling faceI wanna see your face, see your face again ‘n’ again ‘n’ again, again, oh

…

Band – I Shall Be Released

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is a song off a debut album. I picked The Band and their debut album, Music From Big Pink, released in 1968.

Every once in a while, a song doesn’t just sound like it was written in stone; it feels like it was. I Shall Be Released is one of those songs. That’s the magic of The Band. They could turn a Dylan lyric into a backwoods hymn, all soul and no showbiz.

There is a very solemn song with a religious hymnal feel to it. The song is not commercial, not meant to be a hit, sell a million copies, but just pure music at its best. There are no pretensions or gimmicks…this is the Band at one of its many peaks.

Richard Manuel, whose voice always sounded like it was teetering on the edge of breaking, whether from emotion, exhaustion, or both, delivers a vocal here that’s just haunting. He makes Dylan’s already powerful lyrics sound like the final words of a man who’s seen too much and still manages to believe that salvation might come… someday.

Bob Dylan wrote this in 1967, but his version was not officially released until 1971 on his Greatest Hits Vol. II album. The Band, which backed up Dylan on his first electric tour, recorded it for Music From Big Pink, their first album. Their version is the most well-known. Bob wrote it after his motorcycle accident in 1966. Some have said the song represents Dylan’s search for personal salvation.

Everyone under the sun has covered this song, but the Band’s own rendition was released first and is probably the best-known version.

The song was the B side to The Weight released in 1968. Music From The Big Ping peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 and #18 in Canada. That wasn’t the biggest thing, though…the album helped change the landscape of popular music from the psychedelic harder rock to more earthy roots music.

I Shall Be Released

They say everything can be replaced
They say every distance is not near
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

They say every man needs protection
They say that every man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere so high above this wall

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

Now, yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
A man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shouting so loud
Just crying out that he was framed

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

…

Stevie Ray Vaughan – The House Is Rockin’

It was back on a winter’s night in a friend’s (Chris) house that I first heard and saw Stevie Ray Vaughan in the mid-1980s. His house had a sunken living room and a rise that the kitchen table sat on at the end. I was on the rise with my amp, and he called me over to the television. He pushed in an old VHS tape of SRV on Austin City Limits that he recorded. It knocked me out…not since seeing clips of Hendrix did I see such an aggressive guitar player. He was even more aggressive than Hendrix.

This two-minute burst of pure energy was a hell of a single. SRV played guitar not by numbers but by precise feel. Like Neil Young, he played by feel but without the wandering…just powerful, precise notes. In this song, I can hear a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis as well. It was written by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall and recorded in Memphis.

This song is on the 1989 In Step album. Vaughan had just gotten sober, and this was his first record at the time. This is the last solo album to be released during his lifetime. He made an album with his brother called Family Style, and it was released a month before his death.

This song peaked at #18 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts in 1989. The album peaked at #33 on the Billboard 100. Tragically, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash just over a year after In Step was released. But “The House Is Rockin’” still stands as one of his top singles.

I could watch this man play all day long. His playing was so inspired and electric. I play guitar, but not really big solos as much. He took licks and solos to a new level.

The House Is Rocking

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’If the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Kick off your shoes, start losin’ the bluesThis old house ain’t got nothing to loseSeen it all for years, you start spreading the newsWe got room on the floor, come on, baby, shake something loose

Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Walking up the street you can hear the soundOf some bad honky tonker’s really layin’ it downWe’ve seen it all for years, and got nothin’ to loseSo get out on the floor, shimmy ’til you shake somethin’ loose

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on inI said the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

…

Cry Of Love – Peace Pipe

When CB sent me a link to this band, the first name that popped into my pointy head was Steve Marriott, who I think was the best vocalist of his generation. In the middle of grunge, this band came out of nowhere and sounded like a reimagined Humble Pie or Free. The singer Kelly Holland has been compared to various singers such as Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers, and Chris Cornell…so I wasn’t far off.

In the nineties, Grunge music was king and hard rock was being heard by The Black Crowes and Guns N’ Roses, but there wasn’t a bunch of mainstream success from many others. This band had bad timing written all over them. It’s a shame because they were a very talented rock band. I talked to Deke about them, and he bought some of their CDs at the time, but they were gone before they really got started. They seemed set up to do a lot of damage and have huge success.

They burned bright in the early 1990s. They were known for their soulful, blues hard rock sound that stood apart from the grunge. They were formed in 1991 in Raleigh, North Carolina. They released two albums in total: Brother in 1993 and Diamonds and Debris in 1997.

Peace Pipe peaked at #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1993. They had another song called Bad Thing peaked at #2 on the same chart in 1994.

Lead singer Kelly Holland quit the band after their first big tour because he didn’t like life on the road. He was replaced by Robert Mason (Warrant’s lead singer), and they made the album Diamonds and Debris, which spawned a hit single Sugarcane, that peaked at #22 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1997. It’s a great song! They broke up soon after.

The band took their name from Jimi Hendrix’s 1971 posthumous album, The Cry of Love. That album was compiled by engineer Eddie Kramer and drummer Mitch Mitchell and featured some of the final studio recordings Hendrix was working on before his death. That was only the beginning of Jimi Hendrix’s posthumous albums.

This band had a lot of talented musicians. The bass player Robert Kearns later played with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Audley Freed played guitar with The Black Crowes, and now Kearns and Freed play with Cheryl Crow.

The band had hits and were set up to do big things, but when Holland quit that pretty much sealed it for them. Unfortunately, Kelly Holland passed away in 2014 from an abdominal infection.

Peace Pipe

In the heat of the morningIn the eye of the sunHear the wind start blowingSee the horse and the gunNow the peace pipe, it ain’t smokin’All the promises are brokenIn the heat of the morningSee the horse and the gunAll in the name of God somehowOh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehow…Burn down the sacred ground!

In the dead of the evening,When the spears come down,Say a prayer for the plowboyOn the killing ground.Now the peace pipe, it is broken,All the shaman’s gone unspoken.In the dead of the eveningWhen the tears come down, yeah!All in the name of God somehow…Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!

All in the nameAll in the name

All in the name of God somehowHey, hey! Oh-oh, yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!Hey, hey! Yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!

…

Temptations – Papa Was A Rolling Stone

This song is just about the coolest song ever. It was a long way from My Girl a few years earlier. That innocent sound is gone, replaced with hardness and grit, not to mention strings and a wah-wah.

The song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. The first recording wasn’t by The Temptations, but by The Undisputed Truth, a psychedelic soul group also produced by Whitfield. Released in May 1972, their version had a rawer, less refined sound and was under four minutes long. It charted but not huge, peaking at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Temptations version peaked at #1 (of course) in the Billboard 100, #14 in the UK, and #12 in Canada in 1972. This was the last big hit recorded in Motown’s famous Studio A, located in a two-story house in Detroit. Most of Motown’s studio work had moved to Los Angeles by then, but The Temptations still recorded in Detroit.

Whitfield reworked the song for The Temptations. By 1972, they had transitioned from smooth Motown pop to a grittier sound under Whitfield’s guidance in what some called psychedelic soul. The intro alone runs nearly four minutes in the full album version, which is a lot for a mainstream soul song. The band initially hated the long instrumental sections, feeling like it sidelined them, but the track’s success changed their minds.

The B side to this single was Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone (Instrumental). Both sides of the single won Grammy awards. The A-side won for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus, and the B-side took the award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone

It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember,
Yes, I will
‘Cause that was the day that my daddy died
I never got a chance to see him
Never heard nothin’ but bad things about him
Mama, I’m depending on you
To tell me the truth
Mama just hung her head and said, “Son,..

Papa was a rolling stone.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.
Papa was a rolling stone, my son.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Hey, mama!
Is it true what they say that papa never worked a day in his life?
And, mama, some bad talk goin’ round town sayin’ that papa had three outside children and another wife,
And that ain’t right
Heard them talking papa doing some store front preachin’
Talked about saving souls and all the time leechin’
Dealing in debt and stealing in the name of the Lord
Mama just hung her head and said,

Papa was a rolling stone, my son.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.
Papa was a rolling stone.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Hey, mama,
I heard papa called himself a “Jack Of All Trades”
Tell me is that what sent papa to an early grave?
Folks say papa would beg, borrow, steal
To pay his bills
Hey, mama,
Folks say papa never was much on thinking
Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking
Mama, I’m depending on you
To tell me the truth
Mama looked up with a tear in her eye and said, “Son,..

[Chorus]
Papa was a rolling stone (well, well…)
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone
Papa was a rolling stone
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

I said, “Papa was a rolling stone (yes, he was, my son)
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone
My daddy was (papa was a rolling stone), yes, he was
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Beatles – She Said, She Said

At this point during recording, Revolver was nearly finished. They were worn down and creatively drained, but also ambitious. This song was the final track recorded for the album, and it came under a lot of pressure. They had to nail it quickly because the album deadline was looming. It has been said that this song was the first time an LSD experience directly influenced a song by them.

George Harrison deserves an assist credit with this song. Lennon had the core of the song but was struggling to pull the parts together. George Harrison jumped in to help him link two unfinished song fragments, the “She said / I know what it’s like to be dead” part and the “When I was a boy” section. This last-minute patchwork was crucial: without Harrison, it’s possible She Said She Said wouldn’t have been finished in time.

Love the guitar sound and the brilliant bridge to this song. It was inspired by the actor Peter Fonda, who was on an acid trip along with George Harrison and John Lennon while they were together in a mansion in California. Accounts vary as to how events unfolded, but there is a consensus that Fonda kept saying “I know what it’s like to be dead,” which ended up being a key line in the lyric.

This is one Beatles song that Paul did not play on. He got in an argument with the rest of them and walked out the door before they recorded it, so George Harrison is playing bass. The song was on Revolver, which is considered by many the best album the Beatles produced…and by some the best by anyone.

George Harrison: “I don’t know how, but Peter Fonda was there. He kept saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead, because I shot myself.’ He’d accidentally shot himself at some time and he was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool.”

She Said She Said

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.”
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born

I said, “Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I’m mad.
And you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.
I know what it’s like to be dead…”

Big Sugar – Diggin a Hole

I was looking for a band to cover, and CB sent me a link to this terrific Canadian band. I liked the music right away. The first thing I noticed was the great musicianship on the songs. They are the real deal musically, and the guitarist Geordie Johnson is top shelf, and so is the bass player Garry Lowe.

They were formed in Toronto in the late 1980s, initially as a blues trio built around the guitar work of frontman Gordie Johnson. Before Big Sugar became popular, Johnson started out backing legends like the Muddy Waters alumni and Mavis Staples.

Another member who made them sound distinctive was bass player Garry Lowe. Lowe joined Big Sugar in 1994 and played on eight of their albums. He bridged the reggae and Rastafarian culture of his native Jamaica with a rock audience. Lowe was sometimes criticized for working in Big Sugar by Rastas and Jamaican music followers who wanted him to keep reggae pure, but he continued to play and blend his style into others.

They have released 11 studio albums since 1991 and 2 live albums. Their last studio album was released in 2020 and is called Eternity Now. Their success has been mostly in Canada, with one song getting some US airplay with You Better Get Used To It.

I’ve been listening to different cuts, and they cover a lot of ground. They have some heavy blues riffs, some reggae rhythms, roots music, with a pinch of psychedelia here and there. Their breakthrough album was Five Hundred Pounds, which hit big on Canadian college radio at the time.

This song was on the 1996 album Hemi-Vision. It was their biggest hit in Canada, peaking at #9 in the Canadian Charts. I asked my friend Deke if he had heard of them, and he has seen them live a few times. He also sent me this video of Jack White (who is a fan) who is releasing their album Five Hundred Pounds again on vinyl.

Diggin A Hole

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin’ twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart

Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin’ twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart

Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart
Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

This ~~song~~ explosion is like an atom bomb going off. From the first words “Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand” you know Jimi means business. This is no boy band, folk cafe, or pop song. Jimi is shooting to kill. This song is off the great 1968 Electric Ladyland album. From the tone of the guitar and how he spits out the lyrics, the song is a masterpiece. The guitar riff is one of, if not the best. There was another song called Voodoo Chile that was recorded, but it is a different song.

This song was recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in May 1968, during the sessions for Hendrix’s third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland. The day before this was recorded, Jimi, Steve Winwood, Jack Casady, and some others had a jam in the studio called Voodoo Chile. This song was almost an accident after they built this song with a riff from the previous day.

A camera crew from ABC-TV came by to film Hendrix for a documentary. Hendrix, always the showman, wanted to give them something great. So, he grabbed his guitar, and the Experience basically created “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” on the spot. It was a stripped-down, turbo-charged echo of the longer “Voodoo Chile” jam from the previous day. This time built around that now-iconic riff.

Unfortunately, that footage from this day is said to be stolen. The footage of the previous day’s jam was left alone. Did the thief die and leave the unattended films to rot into dust? Are the reels locked away in some forgotten vault or stashed in an attic? Were the films destroyed in a fire, deliberate or accidental? Is some private collector viewing them at this moment? We may never know.

The readers of Music Radar voted this the very best rock riff ever. That is saying a lot, but I can’t fight that much at all. If you are wondering, Guns N Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine came second in the poll and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love” third.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) was released in the UK after his death. It peaked at #1 in 1970. It was his only number 1 hit in the UK.

Joe Satriani: “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand
Yeah

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I want to say one more last thing

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to you one of these days, hahaha
I said I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back one of these days
Oh yeah
If I don’t meet you no more in this world, then
I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child, voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I’m a voodoo child, baby
I don’t take no for an answer
Question no
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby